Digital transactions were disrupted across India on Wednesday due to a widespread outage in the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Many users reported difficulties in making payments, leading to a surge in complaints on Downdetector, a platform that tracks service disruptions.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) confirmed that UPI faced intermittent technical issues, resulting in partial transaction failures. The problem lasted for about an hour before being resolved.
"NPCI had faced intermittent technical issues owing to which UPI had partial decline. The same has been addressed now and the system has stabilised. Regret the inconvenience," NPCI said in a post on X.
UPI, developed and managed by NPCI under the regulation of the Reserve Bank of India, is an instant payment system that allows money transfers between bank accounts. The system operates without user charges and enables transactions at any time. It is widely used for both large and small payments, including purchases at local shops. The platform also features an AutoPay option for recurring payments, making bill payments and subscriptions seamless.